1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to water heater cleaning apparatus, and more specifically to an apparatus comprising quick disconnect attachments and a kit combining same for cleaning out a water heater using a vacuum cleaner capable of handling liquids.
2. Description of Related Art
Water heaters, particularly those installed in residences and small buildings, require occasional cleaning to remove scale that builds up over time as salts dissolved in water precipitate inside the water heater tank body. In order to remove the scale, the water within the tank is first drained. This is typically accomplished via an openable drain outlet near the bottom of the tank. Often such a drain outlet is threaded with a male hose fitting to which a garden hose-type female fitting is secured, thereby permitting the garden hose to be extended outside the building to carry the water from the tank for outside disposal.
Once the water is drained from the water heater tank, scale can be removed. While some scale will be removed via the garden hose, more dense deposits will require entry of a removal apparatus into the water heater tank to extract the deposit. Such may readily be accomplished via a tube that is inserted through an aperture exposed by removal of the tank heating element. However, removal of water and scale in the above-referenced fashion requires a succession of instruments that are not typically part of the same apparatus and which separately may not be readily adaptable to use with a wet/dry vacuum cleaner.
One previous device is a manipulable cleaning tube adapted to be attached to a vacuum cleaner that is utilized through being inserted in the same tank aperture that contains the heater tank's heating element. However, this device must both remove water and scale and for the former is cumbersome, particularly because it must be hand-held in position during the entire time that the tank is being drained. Further, this device lacks the ability to quickly interchange various working tip elements.
Another device provides a stepped body structure, wherein each step is individually utilized to fit different sized tubes coming from different vacuum sources. However, this device also lacks the ability to allow quick interchange of a variety of working tip elements therewith.
Moreover, trying to utilize different implements is often difficult, even when they interconnect, as water that has been removed from the tank makes it difficult to separate the now-slippery working tip elements of the implements for interchange with other working tip elements.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a need for a water tank cleaning apparatus that has readily interchangeable working tip elements that are adapted to remove water and scale from the water tank and which can be interchanged easily when they are wet.